Spain prepares for an autumn of discontent by buying €1bn of riot gear | World news | The Guardian.

The Spanish government is readying itself for an autumn of discontent, spending nearly €1bn on riot gear for police units as disparate protest groups prepare a string of demonstrations.

Since June, the interior ministry has tendered four contracts to purchase riot equipment ranging from shields to stab vests. The ministry also finalised its purchase of a new truck-mounted water cannon, an anti-riot measure used during Spain‘s dictatorship and the transition to democracy but little seen in recent years. Despite attempts (Read more…)

I was taken aback by a post from Geoff Kennedy at Parchment in the Fire entitled, “EU Advisors Advocate use of Military Against Strikes and Protests | Global Research.”

The thrust of this report is that military forces should be employed to defend the interests of the extremely wealthy from unrest among the masses. The key author was professor Tomas Ries, currently with the Swedish Institute for International Affairs. Geoff writes:

Ries sees the central threat to “security” in a violent “conflict between unequal socioeconomic classes in global society,” which were “in vertical asymmetric tensions in the global (Read more…)

Five of the peaceful Dam Line 9 Blockade activists who had been occupying an Enbridge Line 9 pipeline construction site in southwestern Ontario for almost a week were arrested by the Ontario Provincial Police earlier today.

The activists had occupied the site since Monday last week, arguing that the construction posed “a danger to people, animals, land, and water.”

by: Lauren McCauley | First published by Common Dreams on June 18, 2014

“It’s official. The war is on,” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip told a crowd of hundreds who had flooded the streets of Vancouver late Tuesday following the announcement that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper had approved the Enbridge Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline.

Phillip, who is president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, told reporters that people are prepared to go to jail over this fight, “because that’s what it’s going to take.”

Every breath you takeEvery move you makeEvery bond you breakEvery step you takeI’ll be watching you.

-The Police – Every Breath You Take

Recent revelations, some of which I have written about, should make us all acutely aware that in the surveillance state, which now describes much of the world, our privacy is more a cherished illusion than it is a reality. Not only has the Canadian federal government been enjoying easy access to our digital information but also, as we recently learned, it has sent out a directive to all federal departments to report (Read more…)

25 years ago in Tiananmen Square there was a protest against the Chinese government. The protest was dealt with lethal force by the government – killing many people. Since then, the Chinese government has blocked any discussion about the protest and has greatly censored information on it. Obviously all of this isn’t good news.

To curtail the efforts of propaganda artists and censors in China there are groups that are trying to ensure that we don’t forget about the protest. This is good because if we forget our collective history we deny ourselves a richer, more knowledgable, existence. If we (Read more…)

Anti-austerity protests took over parts of Paris and Rome on Saturday, with one demonstration in Rome spurring violence when protesters threw rocks, eggs and firecrackers at police, with at least one person injured.